The present invention relates to a luggage compartment adapted for use in a motorcycle or like vehicle, and more specifically to a luggage compartment that is generally located at or forward the vehicle's vertical center of gravity and preferably located on, and interior, to the fairing or chassis of the cycle.
Generally, luggage compartments for motorcycles or the like are accessories attached at physically convenient locations behind the rider such as bags or containers mounted to or slung over rear mounted carrier racks or surfaces such as described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,757. A typical design is a pair of side mounted leather bags hung by straps over a framework that encloses the rear of the motorcycle. Other proposed designs include luggage carriers mounted to backrests such as those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,901,534 and 3,850,353. However, a problem with all of these conventional designs lies in their adverse effects on the operating stability of the cycle. A motorcycle's general handling, including weave and wobble stability, are degraded by adding significant amounts of weight behind the vertical center of gravity of the motorcycle, i.e. at the rear of the cycle. As such, large luggage compartments located behind the passenger can significantly degrade the stability and handling of a cycle. Generally, this limits the amount of weight that luggage compartments located behind the driver can carry. If larger capacity rear storage is desired, significant engineering efforts are required to make compensating improvements to counteract the potential destabilizing influences of such a luggage capacity.